bodo&#039;shttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/590/all
enSnap: Water-saving at Bodo'shttp://www.readthehook.com/69605/snap-water-saving-bodos
<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/news-bodoswaterlessurinal-copy.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-22695 alignleft" title="news-bodoswaterlessurinal" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/news-bodoswaterlessurinal-copy-140x105.jpg" alt="news-bodoswaterlessurinal" width="140" height="105" /></a> The downtown Bodo's has recently joined Charlottesville Radio Group as a business <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2009/09/24/GREEN-PostcardsfromtheHedge.aspx">embracing the no-water urinal</a> from Sloan, as this photo of the overhauled men's room indicates. Perhaps this kind of move bears some responsibility for low water sales by the Rivanna Water &amp; Sewer Authority (though the chair Mike Gaffney blames the faltering economy), seeing a <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/27/down-22-percent-water-thrift-backfires/">low-use trend</a>, including its lowest September sales (at just 10.06 million gallons per day) since mandatory restrictions were enforced in 2002.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/69605/snap-water-saving-bodos#comments_BreakingNewsSnap o' the DayInfrastructurebodo'swater conservationSat, 07 Nov 2009 12:53:14 +0000hawes69605 at http://www.readthehook.comSnap o' the Day: Busy Bodo'shttp://www.readthehook.com/71439/snap-o-day-busy-bodos
<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/news-busybodos.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-12639 alignleft" title="news-busybodos" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/news-busybodos-140x105.jpg" alt="news-busybodos" width="140" height="105" /></a> This was the scene at the Corner Bodo's at 11:14am Sunday, May 17, shortly after UVA conducted its <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/majorevents/schedule.html">Final Exercises</a> on the nearby Lawn.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/71439/snap-o-day-busy-bodos#comments_BreakingNews_FoodSnap o' the DayUVAbodo'sthe corner districtuva graduationMon, 18 May 2009 09:28:46 +0000hawes71439 at http://www.readthehook.comSnap o' the Day: 'Chairity' at Bodo'shttp://www.readthehook.com/72649/snap-o-day-chairity-bodos
<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/food-bodoschairs.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-8772 alignleft" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/food-bodoschairs-140x105.jpg" title="food-bodoschairs" style="float: left;" height="105" border="0" width="140" /></a> The Preston Avenue <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/foodfinder/restaurants/bodos">Bodo's</a> has replaced all its chairs, so the bagel bakery is selling the old ones (shown here) for $20 each, with the proceeds going to charity. According to manager Mike Overend, one of the food banks will get the proceeds from the 50 chairs which went on sale Sunday, February 15. As of Tuesday morning, only 36 are left. "So far, it's been very positive," says Overend.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/72649/snap-o-day-chairity-bodos#comments_BreakingNews_FoodSnap o' the Daybodo'sTue, 17 Feb 2009 13:47:32 +0000hawes72649 at http://www.readthehook.comBodo's sold: Three managers buy the bagel bizhttp://www.readthehook.com/104818/bodos-sold-three-managers-buy-bagel-biz
<p>After 20 years at the helm of Bodo's, the legendary bagelry that has become a Charlottesville institution, owner Brian Fox is calling it quits.</p>
<p>“That’s enough,” says Fox, a once notorious workaholic/perfectionist whose penchant for offering low-cost meals was topped only by fascination with how long it took him to open each of this three venues&#8211; one of which took a decade.</p>
<p>“Your drive disappears when your responsibilities diminish, at least for me,” says Fox, 61, who says he has backed away from daily operation of the stores over the last few years.</p>
<p>In 1986, Fox hung his famous "bagels are coming" sign on a former Roy Rogers fast-food joint on Emmet Street. Three years later, the first Bodo's opened.</p>
<p>Fox stopped by the <i>Hook</i> June 5 to reveal his news (if not the sales price).</p>
<p>“I want to have more time to read and travel and be relatively worry-free," he says. "I had tremendous ambition to take care of my family, and I’ve done that. The business has worked very hard and well over the years, and I for it.”</p>
<p>Given his attachment to the business, it’s not hard to see why Fox chose a <i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</i> method of passing on his bagel empire. Although the business didn’t go to a golden-ticket holder unwrapping his pastrami on sesame, it did go to people who share Fox’s vision: his three general managers.</p>
<p>“They’re like me,” Fox says, “in that they're not satisfied with the status quo. You have to watch out for entropy; you have to be constantly improving to make things work.”</p>
<p>The buyers are John Kokola, who handles the Corner location; Scott Smith, the Preston Avenue majordomo; and Connie Jenson, who runs the Emmet Street store.</p>
<p>“It hasn’t totally sunk in,” laughs Jenson, 51, who began working at Bodo's 13 years ago. “I’ve caught myself wondering, 'Is this real?'”</p>
<p>Jenson concedes that Fox did “sit on this decision” for quite a while, but she has nothing but praise for her former boss.</p>
<p>“He’s the smartest businessman I’ve ever known,” she says. “And he’s been such a compassionate boss. I feel even more responsibility to keep Bodo's going like it has been.”</p>
<p>Smith, 36, also finds it hard to believe where he’s found himself. As an English grad student teaching Shakespeare when he took a part-time job at Bodo's almost eight years ago, he never imagined he’d own a business.</p>
<p>“I thought I’d do it for a year, maybe two, and then get a teaching job,” he says. “For years, nothing along the lines of ownership ever crossed my mind. I just liked the social vibe at Bodo's. It was so positive. But over time it began to look like a real possibility.”</p>
<p>Kokola, also 36, left two full-time jobs at franchise restaurants to work at Bodo's 14 years ago, and says it was a classified ad that caught his attention. “Where I [previously] worked, everyone just sat around reading the newspaper," he says. "When I saw Brian’s ad in the paper, I was struck by its human aspect, by the way it said they were looking for these kinds of people, with these specific qualities.”</p>
<p>Fox says he’ll remain available for consulting with the three GMs and will continue to own the real estate at the Emmet and Preston locations. The Corner store is rented.</p>
<p>“I really enjoy that Bodo's is an important part of people’s lives,” says Fox. “There’s a lot of chaos in life, and one of the reasons I think Bodo's has been so popular is that it's so familiar. It’s home to people."</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/104818/bodos-sold-three-managers-buy-bagel-biz#comments_BreakingNewsbodo'sbrian foxNewsFri, 20 Jul 2012 19:01:47 +0000Dave McNair104818 at http://www.readthehook.comAll things come... Ten years later, a Corner Bodo'shttp://www.readthehook.com/97308/news-all-things-come-ten-years-later-corner-bodos
<p>It's 6:59am at the front door of a University Avenue storefront, and there's a gaggle of about 20 people standing under a sign that reads "Bodo's." But one eager patron has clearly arrived a bit earlier than the rest.</p>
<p>"I've been here since 3:30 this morning," says 24-year-old Deke Shipp.</p>
<p>If his name sounds familiar, there's a reason. This former Bodo's employee served as a sort of Deep Throat in the <i>Hook</i>'s March 2002 cover story on the strangely unopened bagel bakery in the UVA business district known as the Corner.</p>
<p>"The Corner store will never open," Shipp proclaimed back then. But that was only year seven. Three more years passed with the fully equipped store bathed in darkness.</p>
<p>But here it is Wednesday, June 15, a bright spring morning, and Bodo's owner Brian Fox has unlocked the door. Without fanfare, he holds the door open so the first customers can file into the third jewel in his bagel crown at 7am.</p>
<p>Is anyone surprised when Fox moans, "We weren't really ready"?</p>
<p>After somehow managing to spend 10 years readying his restaurant and annoying what seemed to be everyone in town, Fox is the star of the day. But Shipp's early arrival is causing its own buzz.</p>
<p>"We showed up this morning at 6:30, and he was already camped out," says second-in-line Elizabeth Vance. "We were hoping to be #1, but he's really hard-core. He deserves it."</p>
<p>As the 2002 <i>Hook</i> story related, anyone who arrives early enough to secure the first order of any day at any Bodo's might want to laminate his ticket. What will Shipp do with the little white slip he's just secured on B-Day? Shipp jokes that he'll have it up on eBay before the day is out.</p>
<p>But wait! The ticket&#8211; <i>where is it</i>?</p>
<p>In all the excitement, Shipp has absent-mindedly treated his order of two dozen bagels as just any old take-out.</p>
<p>"Oh, my God," Shipp exclaims, fishing the ticket deep out of a pants pocket. "I just crumpled it up." Ticket #001 is now the size of a spitball. So much for eBay.</p>
<p>UVA classes ended more than a month ago, but rising second year student Patrick Martinez, 18, left his home in Manassas this morning at 5:30am to be here. "I figure it's only going to open once," Martinez says.</p>
<p>"I've watched all these years, and even peeked in the darkened windows," admits Elizabeth Lynch, 52. She's among the growing throng who just can't believe that this day has actually come.</p>
<p>"I was bartending at the Virginian," relates author Coy Barefoot of that May day in 1995 when he heard that a third Bodo's was in the works. "Bob Mincer was standing out on the sidewalk in front of Mincer's. And he said, 'Guess who just rented the Kinko's space that has been sitting empty?'"</p>
<p>Previous Bodo's incarnations opened on Emmet Street (1988) and Preston Avenue (1993). Since Fox began renting the Corner location, the adjacent building has switched from a gift shop called Arnette's to a caffeinery called Starbucks. And class after class of Wahoos have gone from matriculation to graduation without being able to get a deli egg on onion on the Corner.</p>
<p>Along the way there have been false alarms, April Fool's jokes, a "Coming... promise" Halloween costume, and even a boycott. And through it all, Fox's willingness to pay rent on a fully equipped but idle business has created a firestorm of debate over his motives. And over his reluctance.</p>
<p>"The Corner store is going to be the flagship, the store that everyone thinks about when they think Bodo's, dude," Shipp opined in 2002. "It has to be perfect. It has to be perfect <i>times four</i>."</p>
<p>Fox, 60, says there's no obsessive/compulsive disorder, shocking tax dodge, or other nefarious explanation for the infuriating phenomenon. "It was never a plan to postpone it," says Fox. "It was always season by season, and it never felt right."</p>
<p>He says this is just a case of a man who lost his marriage and his ambition. "When I was done educating my kids and didn't have a wife anymore," explains Fox, "I couldn't find the ambition."</p>
<p>So what changed? Fox pauses. "I don't know how much it has to do with it, but now I have grandchildren. It gives a little push to things because I want to help them out."</p>
<p>His daughter Naomi helped him out back when she was a 26-year-old artist living in New York. For about a year, she traveled to Charlottesville to paint the college-scene murals that some patrons compare favorably to murals at UVA. Naomi, now 33, studies film animation instead of painting restaurant walls.</p>
<p>The four booths and 18 tables in this venue feature solid mahogany construction with what appears to be a gymnasium floor's worth of clear, glimmering varnish.</p>
<p>"I'm pretty protective of that," says a voice. But it's not Fox. It's John Kokola, a 35-year-old employee since 1992. He says he's the one who applied "about 60 coats" of varnish, each separated by a light sanding&#8211; "all put on by hand."</p>
<p>Twelve hours after the opening salvo, they're still selling bagels. It's now 7:08pm, and a reporter finds that he's order #961. Since many numbers represent multiple orders, well over 1,000 people have come through today, including the man who strolls up and yells out to no one in particular: "Do you believe this?"</p>
<p>Is Fox on edge?</p>
<p>Bodo's employee Matt Datesman doesn't think so. "I think he's relieved," says the optimist.</p>
<p>Andrew D'Huyvetter, who graduated a month ago, met up with eight friends from the Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity for the occasion. "My roommate's older sister, who graduated in '03, said, 'Surely Bodo's will open by the time you graduate. But she was mistaken."</p>
<p>Well, only by a month.</p>
<p><b><img src="/images/issues/2005/0425/news-bodo-duo.jpg" border="0" /> <br />Customer number one Deke Shipp, right, celebrates with Bodo's owner Brian Fox.<br /></b>PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER<b> </b></p>
<p><b><span class="fid22490 imagecache-300px_wide"><img src="http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/300px_wide/images/field_images/news-bodo-sleep.jpg" title="Shipp, circa 6am on B-Day." border="0" /><span class="caption">Shipp, circa 6am on B-Day.</span></span> </b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b><img src="/images/issues/2005/0425/news-bodo-group.jpg" border="0" /> <br />Phi Sigma Pi rendezvoused for early-morning bagels.<br /></b>PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER<b> </b></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/97308/news-all-things-come-ten-years-later-corner-bodos#commentsbodo'sNewsWed, 29 Jun 2011 01:19:17 +0000hawes97308 at http://www.readthehook.comDrumroll, please! Bodo's set to open... reallyhttp://www.readthehook.com/97137/news-drumroll-please-bodos-set-open-ireally
<p>For those who said the Corner Bodo's would open when pigs fly, look up&#8211; is that a soaring sausage? The temperature in hell also may be dropping precipitously.</p>
<p>In fact, the signs are all in place, and owner Brian Fox confirms he's the reason for these freakish occurrences. According to Fox, June 13 "or thereabouts" is the day bagel-lovers believed would never come, the day the Corner Bodo's opens.</p>
<p>After a two-year tease, Fox opened his first bagel restaurant on Emmet Street in 1988. He opened his second on Preston Avenue three years after the announcement in 1993. But it's been a decade and a month since he first leased the Corner Bodo's space.</p>
<p>At various points "Coming soon" signs have adorned the place, and in recent years, the name Corner Bodo's has rarely been heard unaccompanied by a snicker. In fact, several April Fool's pranksters have used the delay as joke fodder.</p>
<p>But this time's for real, Fox says, promising he's not just crying "bagel."</p>
<p>The soda fountains are hooked up, the iced tea is flowing, and all that's left to do now is finish hiring the 45 or so employees it takes to run a single Bodo's.</p>
<p>"You can't hire a month ahead of time," says Fox. "That's the daunting part of it."</p>
<p>Fox says he might have opened a few days sooner, but blames the Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo for leaving him short-staffed.</p>
<p><b><img src="/images/issues/2005/0422/news-fox.jpg" border="0" /> <br />Bodo's boss Brian Fox says he's serious this time. Fool us once, shame on you...<br /></b>PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER</p>
<p>#</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/97137/news-drumroll-please-bodos-set-open-ireally#commentsbodo'sNewsWed, 29 Jun 2011 01:04:12 +0000courteney97137 at http://www.readthehook.comBagels! Bagels! Corner Bodo's to open (promise)http://www.readthehook.com/96387/news-bagels-bagels-corner-bodos-open-promise
<p>Did you hear the news? The Corner Bodo's is opening! No, really. Seriously! We swear, it's opening! Oh, why won't anyone believe us?</p>
<p>Bodo's owner Brian Fox told the <i>Hook</i> earlier this week that he'll finally do the unthinkable and open his Corner store. If the announcement is met with disbelief, it's understandable. After all, Fox is the man who cried bagel.</p>
<p>It was back in 1995 when Fox, who already had two Bodo's locations&#8211; on Preston Avenue and Emmet Street&#8211; signed a lease for the former Kinko's spot on the Corner. Massive renovations immediately ensued, and a sign went up teasing, "Coming soon!"</p>
<p>And he teased... and teased... and teased. Eventually Fox added the word "promise."</p>
<p>But he broke his promise. Nearly a decade and <i>many</i> tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent later, the teasing has continued, and the Corner Bodo's has become a local legend, the impetus for a Bodo's boycott, and a laughingstock, the butt of many jokes.</p>
<p>Last year, a UVA student played a cruel April Fool's prank by plastering signs all over the Corner and UVA Grounds promising free bagels. Eager bagel lovers showed up early for the promised treats, only to find a locked door. But this year, Fox says, it's no joke.</p>
<p>"It will happen," he promises. Though no opening date is set (hmmmm....), Fox says he hopes it will be in the next two months. The only obstacle, he insists, is hiring and training staff.</p>
<p>"I could do it within the next few weeks if I had staff and everything ready to go," says Fox.</p>
<p>There are signs that suggest this time might be for real.</p>
<p>Fox says he's received his Certificate of Occupancy from the city, and he's placed ads for shift managers and bakers to help staff the store.</p>
<p>"I've never done that before," he says. In fact, he points out, he's never announced an imminent opening before: he's only responded to reporters' questions about an opening with vague "someday" answers.</p>
<p>But more important than the Certificate or the want ads, Fox says, is his frame of mind.</p>
<p>"The time is right," he explains, "in both my business life and personal life. I have good crews. I feel optimistic."</p>
<p>The news thrills some Corner merchants.</p>
<p>"I would say I'm cautiously optimistic," says Mincer's owner Mark Mincer, who says he's heard the talk of a Bodo's opening countless times. That it's coming straight from Fox makes this time different.</p>
<p>"If <i>he</i> told you that," Mincer explains, "I would think it's true."</p>
<p>The opening, Mincer says, would be good news for all area merchants, who would benefit from an influx of bagel eaters. "A rising tide raises all boats," says Mincer.</p>
<p>Janet Heath, general manager at Michael's Bistro, agrees. And while she doesn't think it will affect her business, she expresses some concern about "some of the more sandwichy places," such as Littlejohn's and Take it Away.</p>
<p>But those sandwichy places are delighted.</p>
<p>"We're glad to have them," says Take it Away owner Tom Bowe.</p>
<p>And Littlejohn's manager Ruth Monroe, on the staff for 25 years, says she has no competition concerns. "We don't lose a lot of business because we're so fast-paced," she explains. "People appreciate being able to get in and out so quick."</p>
<p>Monroe says she's been waiting for the opening. "We've been really curious," she laughs.</p>
<p>Just what did cause the decade of delays?</p>
<p>Fox, who will turn 60 next month, says that the last 10 years have been tough, in particular a mid-'90s divorce and the subsequent rebuilding of his life.</p>
<p>He didn't want to put in 60 or 70 hours a week, and feared if he spread himself too thin by opening the third store, it would cause a decrease in quality at the other two.</p>
<p>"I didn't want to sacrifice anything about my current stores or my life in order to do something that doesn't seem right," he says. "It seems right now, and I feel good about it."</p>
<p>What he says he doesn't feel good about is how long people have had to wait.</p>
<p>"I feel apologetic towards people who've waited," he says. "I never wanted to create suspense or consternation."</p>
<p>What he may, in fact, have created is a bit more Pavlovian.</p>
<p>When told of the impending opening, UVA third year David Lee has a quick response. "I think it's about damn time," he says, "because I've been salivating every time I walk by there."</p>
<p>For those who will believe it only when they see it (or taste it), Fox doesn't judge.</p>
<p>"That's very understandable," he says. "But I can't see anything standing in the way at this point."</p>
<p>Let's hope not, or Fox could end up with an egg bagel on his face.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/96387/news-bagels-bagels-corner-bodos-open-promise#commentsbodo'sNewsWed, 29 Jun 2011 00:06:59 +0000courteney96387 at http://www.readthehook.comCorner con: Bagel prank raises hopeshttp://www.readthehook.com/94956/news-corner-con-bagel-prank-raises-hopes
<p>It's been nearly a decade since Brian Fox snagged a spot on the Corner for a third Bodo's. So when a sign appeared announcing that the town's best-known bagelry was opening its University Avenue location, locals salivated. A check of their calendars, however, would have revealed the truth: The sign was an elaborate April Fool's hoax.</p>
<p>"People are so nuts," laughs Fox, owner of the chain. "It's very funny."</p>
<p>Fox was particularly impressed by the trouble the unidentified pranksters went to to make the joke seem believable. They stuck a 3 x 3-foot laminated poster on the Corner Bodo's door, and distributed professionally printed flyers around UVA, promising free bagels from 7-8am.</p>
<p>The news was soon spreading nationwide by email, reaching UVA grad Catherine Jordan in New York by late morning.</p>
<p>"It's about time!" wrote Allison Elias, who by that time was in on the joke and was having fun spreading the word. An email attachment, supposedly a Cavalier Daily article, told the real story.</p>
<p>"April Fool's! Do you think the Bodo's on the Corner would ever open?" Elias wrote.</p>
<p>Good question.</p>
<p>Fox is cagey.</p>
<p>"There's absolutely nothing to it," he says, "except the usual disclaimer, which is that I don't talk about it."</p>
<p>It was May 1995 when Fox confirmed that he'd rented the space for the Corner Bodo's. Someday a real opening announcement will appear, he promises.</p>
<p>"It's gonna happen," Fox insists. "Keep the faith."</p>
<p><img src="/images/issues/2004/0314/news-bodos.jpg" border="0" /> <br />Hopes rose, but bagel dough did not.<br />PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/94956/news-corner-con-bagel-prank-raises-hopes#commentsbodo'sNewsMon, 27 Jun 2011 11:55:36 +0000courteney94956 at http://www.readthehook.comWaiting for Bodohttp://www.readthehook.com/98813/waiting-bodo
<p>1995 was a big year for Charlottesville. Emily Couric won her first State Senate election. Christopher Reeve became UVA Hospital’s star patient. Our beloved Wahoos toppled #2 Florida State in an epic 33-28 gridiron upset. And local entrepreneur Brian Fox signed the lease for a piece of property that would keep the town talking for the next seven years.<br />Nestled between the venerable Lucky Seven and the glossy Starbucks on University Avenue, the infamously unopened third Bodo’s, without doing any business, has nonetheless become a Charlottesville landmark.<br />Fox, proprietor of the illustrious bagel chain, is known for taking his time setting up stores, but when it comes to the Corner, even a glacial seven years hasn’t been enough.<br />You’ve seen it, you’ve talked about it, you’ve pressed your bagel-craving countenance to its plate glass windows trying to catch a glimpse of something, anything to give you reason to hope.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You want answers, and the Hook’s got ‘em… sort of. <br /><br /><strong>[a Bodo’s invocation] </strong><br /><em>Arise, fair muse of baked goods most divine!</em></p>
<p><em>Spread forth our tale of bagels bounteous,</em></p>
<p><em>And chicken salad sandwiches sublime. </em><br /><br />It’s a story that’s been told a time or 12, but it never hurts to take another gander at the rise of one of Charlottesville’s most enduring empires, does it?<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fox is no stranger to business, having previously run a couple of headshops (if it’s an unfamiliar term, you’d probably rather stay out of ‘em) in New York and Vermont, not to mention a highly successful French restaurant.<br />When he arrived in Charlottesville, he has said, bagels were the last thing on his mind— until he began to miss the breakfast sandwiches from back home. So, after a brief tutorial from a New York master, Fox started baking.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He’s a savvy one, this Fox. In late 1986, he bought a building on Emmet Street, a building which had seen its share of restaurant flops, most recently a Roy Rogers. Thanks to those dining debacles, Fox once told the Charlottesville Business Journal, he bagged a six-figure discount on the site, paying only $423,100.<br />Then came the big tease. Up on the roof, Fox posted a huge banner reading, “The bagels are coming.” Except the bagels didn’t come until July 1988, nearly two years later. Charlottesvillians thought that was a long wait.<br />In 1990, Fox bought a now barely remembered restaurant called Rax on Preston Avenue. This time the wait was nearly three years— that Bodo’s didn’t open until 1993. <br />And when it was revealed just two years later that Fox had rented the old Kinko’s space at the Corner, Charlottesville thrilled at the glorious prospect of a bagel trinity: downtown, 29 North, UVA. It had symmetry, like putting in the last piece of a puzzle. But here we are seven years later, and… well, people are itchy.<br />But Bodo’s, like O.J. Simpson, transcends all negative publicity.<br />Two summers ago, another weekly newspaper broke the news that Bodo’s’ mega-popular chicken salad was, in fact, made of turkey… but nobody gave a damn.<br />In 1999, an impetuous UVA student named Adam Cohen tried to force Fox into opening the Corner location by waging a Bodo’s boycott… but the bagels kept moving. <br />Cohen, who has since earned his Ph.D. and now teaches at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, continues his crusade against Fox, whom he calls a “pathological procrastinator.”<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “The boycott seems to be going well,” Cohen reports from 700 miles away. “A number of people remain steadfast in their refusal to patronize Bodo's because they feel Mr. Fox has misled them and continues to mislead them.”<br />Hmmm. Maybe the boycott’s going well in Florida, but the bagel empire seems to be thriving here.<br />Sometimes, it seems that even if Bodo’s got exposed for tax evasion, drug trafficking, or harboring escaped convicts, well, Fox wouldn’t lose a lick of business. There’s magic in them bagels. <br /><br /><strong>[a Bodo’s haiku] </strong><br /><em>behind the counter</em></p>
<p><em>bagel sandwiches are served</em></p>
<p><em>by armies in white </em><br /><br />"Bodo’s is what the commercials say McDonald’s is: friendly, young, well-spoken kids serving you fast food that looks just like it does in the pictures." So saith Deke Shipp, a Bodo’s veteran of over a year and a half. <br />Shipp, incidentally, went and got himself fired from Bodo’s about three weeks ago for reasons having nothing to do with this article. Nice work, man.<br />Now that Shipp’s been canned, he’s going to spill all the juicy behind-the-scenes dirt, right? Right? <br />"Ummm… there’s really not any dirt, man." <br />Damn.<br />What about Brian Fox himself? What’s the employee take on the ultimate breakfast tycoon? <br />"Brian Fox, as an employer, is a genius, because I don’t know shit about Brian Fox," says Shipp. "It’s his plan, dude, it’s his store, he’s the one who originated the way we bake the bagels, but you never deal with him— he just stops in once or twice a day to check things out." <br />Strike two. Just tell us about the job then.<br />"It’s the maximization of productivity from people who aren’t the terribly productive type," offers Shipp. "Dude, we’re brainless helper monkeys. Just walking back and forth… ‘Ooh, there’s a ticket. Ooh, there’s a bagel.’ That’s all there is to it." <br />At this point, a nearby television showing Richard Roundtree in the 1971 Shaft making out with some chick in the shower distracts Shipp, and the conversation ends abruptly.<br />An average day at Bodo’s, according to employee sources, involves filling 1,100-1,200 orders. Keeping in mind that each order could be anywhere from one to eight dozen bagels… well, that’s a whole lot of bagels. No one’s inclined to share profit figures, but make up an average order cost, and do the math. Then brace yourself.<br />But as chipper as the employees seem to be, things aren’t always completely sunny behind the counter. Bodo’s employees deal with their fair share of cut fingers, burnt palms, and the occasional dropped bucket of lemonade.&nbsp; <br />And suppose a customer finds the classics from Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, and the Temptations (except on Sundays, when classical is the standard of the day) just a little too loud.<br />"Don’t ask us to fucking turn it down, because we’re not going to," says one employee, who, for obvious reasons, requested anonymity. "If you don’t like it, put your damn bagel in a bag and go home.&nbsp; You probably have utensils there." <br /><br /><strong>[a Bodo’s limerick] </strong><br /><em>I know of a fellow named Fox,</em></p>
<p><em>Whose bagel chain totally rocks.</em></p>
<p><em>The new one’s mind-numbing—</em></p>
<p><em>The sign says it’s coming,</em></p>
<p><em>But when will Fox unlock the lox? </em><br /><br />But back to the Corner. The store, which Fox designed with the assistance of his daughter Naomi, is nothing short of a work of art. With elegant woodwork, a decorative mural, and all the equipment in place, the store looks ready to start turning out bagels any minute. But the sign out front has cycled over its seven-year gestation from "coming" to "coming… promise" to "coming soon" and now back to "coming.”<br />The unofficial mayor of the Corner, merchant Bob Mincer, quit waiting some time ago.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “It’s like a dead oak tree,” say Mincer. “You go by it enough times, and you don’t notice it anymore.”<br />Suzanne and Bud Kramer have noticed. They own two Chesapeake Bagel Bakery locations— one at Barracks Road and one just two blocks south of the would-be Bodo’s.<br />&nbsp;“Sure, it would be hard,” says Suzanne about Bodo’s opening on the Corner. “In Charlottesville, Bodo’s are bagels— you say one word, and you almost say the other. But I honestly think that bagel-by-bagel there’s not much of a difference.”<br />Everybody in town has their own theories about why the Corner Bodo’s languishes locked and bagel-less. There are plenty of on-the-record reasons, off-the-record excuses, and off-the-cuff rationalizations bandied about town. Somewhere in the midst of the gossip and innuendo lies the truth. <br />Digging through the old clippings shows an expected trend: <br />So, Brian, when’s the store going to open?<br />November ‘95: “It will open when it’s finished.”<br />May ‘97: “I have been feeling bad about not being open yet.”<br />April ‘98: “Probably this summer.”<br />Or probably not. Not this summer, either.<br />Fox, now 56 or 57 years old, is as elusive and crafty as his mammalian namesake. In fact, he chose to remain totally silent on the issue, save for the expletive he moans when he finds out who’s on the phone.<br />“I’m going through a busy, busy time,” he says.<br />Word from Fox or no word from Fox, pundits are not in short supply. Shipp, who since his firing regards himself as something of an industry analyst, proclaims, “The Corner store will never open." <br />And why’s that? “The Corner store is going to be the flagship, the store that everyone thinks about when they think Bodo’s, dude. It has to be perfect. It has to be perfect times four.”<br />A major setback in the achievement of this perfection-times-four is the huge labor drain from the two existing Bodo’s, which won’t lose significant business to their parking-less Corner cousin. Fox has estimated that the new store will need 50 employees, many of whom would come from the existing stores, and the training of that many bagel-makers would be a truly Herculean undertaking. And we know that the Bodoian labor pool has tightened, as Fox— who used to content himself with the want ads— now posts starting wages (which aren’t too shabby) on the doors to his restaurants and even on top of the cash registers.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Most restaurants start slowly and grow as word gets out and popularity increases. The Corner Bodo’s, by contrast, would inevitably start at full-steam-ahead. It’d be a cash cow, no doubt, although one has to wonder how long it would take to recoup the cost of letting such an expensive bit of retail turf sit empty for seven years.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fox’s landlord, Robin Lee, declined to comment on the situation, saying only, “We look on relations with our tenants as being pretty private.” Local real estate expert Ivo Romanesko, however, reports that the typical rent for stores in that area ranges from $16-20 per square foot per year. Considering the 2,617 square feet that the future Bodo’s occupies, Fox is probably spending at least $3,500 per month to hold the space. According to The Hook’s trusty abacus, that means Fox has blown around $300,000 on rent since he signed the lease in the spring of 1995.<br />“Fox doesn’t give a shit,” observes Shipp. “It’s his office, and it’s a tax write-off.”<br />And on top of it all, it’s a legend. In 1999, at Halloween on the UVA Lawn, three-year-old Katie Ryan-O’Flaherty dressed as a giant bagel adorned with a banner reading, “coming soon.” What better publicity could you want?<br />The Corner store has kept Charlottesville talking, and no one seems to have grown tired of the debate.<br />Bodo’s remains an icon of breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Charlottesville. Being the coveted “order #1” receipt at 6:30am on any given day is still a feat worthy of lamination. Chicken salad addicts can’t quit, even when the meat’s cold turkey. <br />It’s been posited that waiting for the next Bodo’s to open is as much a part of Charlottesville life as eating at the ones already here, and maybe there’s something to that claim.<br />Anyone who’s read Samuel Beckett’s existential masterpiece Waiting for Godot can see its application to the baked-goods universe. It’s about passing time in a hopeless situation, an infinitely unresolved wait. Over on the Corner, life imitates art. <br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/98813/waiting-bodo#commentsbodo'sCover StoriesThu, 07 Jul 2011 18:52:01 +0000James Graham98813 at http://www.readthehook.com